Live Out Your Kung Fu Fantasies in Age of Wushu, Out Today

Experience a sandbox action MMO set during the Ming Dynasty of ancient China.

An MMO centered around the various martial arts would be interesting enough, but Age of Wushu lets players explore the rich culture of one of the pillars of human history - China. The literary tradition of "wuxia" - roughly translating to "martial hero" in English - was ripe for a detailed MMO, and I'm glad a native developer was able to bring it to fruition. There are a few other ways to get special in-game bonuses after paying some money up front, but you can download and play Age of Wushu for free starting today.

"Age of Wushu is the world's first true wuxia-themed MMORPG and its launch in North America gives western players the chance to truly experience ancient Chinese culture," says Tyler Rawlins, senior content producer at Snail Games. "We've created one of the largest and most feature-rich MMOs ever. It is designed to immerse the player into the lore, explore ancient China and live their martial arts fantasies."

Age of Wushu is a free-to-play 3D martial arts MMO, inspired by the lore of medieval China. As a member of one of eight factions, players will develop their characters, learn new skills and take part in both PvE and PvP combat. The game will be entirely skill-based, without classes or levels, and the martial arts combat is enhanced by superhuman abilities.

That's marketing-speak for "Please play our game", but it does seem like there's a lot to explore in Age of Wushu. In what seems to be a new trend in MMO development, there's not classes or levels; the player chooses from one of eight martial arts schools and advances learning a unique fighting style. The developers promise that combat will follow the "strict logic of real-world martial arts", which certainly sounds unique to the MMO genre.

Snail Games has a U.S. division in L.A. who worked on the localization, so hopefully, the English translation works well, and is accessible to an audience outside of Asia. We'll take a spin with Age of Wushu to see how it feels.